such a government shall be good, there must be
guaranteed the purity and incorruptibility of the electorate. This
body needs the union of three eminent guarantees. First, the light
of a fair education and broadened views. Second, an interest in
things, and still better if each had a particular and considerable
interest at stake to defend. Third, such condition of fortune as to
place the elector above attack from corruption.

These advantages I do not look for in the superior class of the
rich, for they undoubtedly have too many special and individual
interests, which they separate from the general interests. But if
it is true that we must not look for the qualifications of the pure
elector among the eminently rich, neither should I look for it among
those whose lack of fortune has prevented their enlightenment; among
such, unceasingly feeling the touches of want, corruption too easily
can find its means. It is, then, in the middle class that we find
the qualities and advantages I have cited. And, I ask, is it the
demand that they contribute five to ten francs that causes the
assertion that we would throw elections into the hands of the rich?
You have established the usage that the electors receive nothing; if
it were otherwise their great number would make an election most
expensive. From the instant that the voter has not means enough to
enable him to sacrifice a little time from his daily labor, one of
three things would occur. The voter would absent himself, or insist
on being paid by the State, else he would be rewarded by the one who
wanted to obtain his suffrage. This does not occur when a
comfortable condition is necessary to constitute an elector. As
soon as the government is established, when the constitution is
guaranteed, there is but a common interest for those who live on
their property, and those who toil honestly. Then can be
distinguished those who desire a stable government and those who
seek but revolution and change, since they increase in importance in
the midst of trouble as vermin in the midst of corruption.

If it is true, then, that under an established constitutional
government all its well-wishers have the same interest, the power of
the same must be placed in the hands of the enlightened who can have
no interest pressing on them, greater than the common interest of
all the citizens. Depart from these principles and you fall into the
abuses of representative government. You woul